Article content Jets 2, Oilers 3 (OT) A decently entertaining opener to the NHL preseason, as both the Edmonton Oilers and the visiting Winnipeg Jets iced line-ups that weren’t super high on name recognition. Indeed, the home side didn’t dress a single player who contributed to last year’s playoff run, managing to hit the minimum of 8 NHL veterans with a combination of recent additions and a couple of guys whose time in the bigs came a few years ago. Not a real heavy-hitting affair but both teams ground it out on both sides of the puck without a lot of cheating for offence.
Each sqaud held the lead briefly but almost the entirety of the action featured a tie score. The Oilers were victimized for a goal in the first 17 seconds, and another just 10 seconds after they forged a 2-1 lead in the third. It eventually came down to overtime where Cam Dineen decided things after Vasily Podkolzin and Matt Savoie did a fine job of getting the puck headed north.
Ice time was very evenly distributed, especially at 5v5 where all 12 forwards played between 12 and 16 minutes and all 6 d-men played between 17 and 21. All 4 forward lines played between 91⁄2 and 11 minutes as a unit: Player thumbnail reports follow, sorted by lines and pairings. As usual, with different players holding very different priorities at this time of year, we’ll hold off on game grades until the games start counting for points.
Forwards #92 Vasily Podkolzin – Impressed in all aspects with a nice combination.